Naughty climber cuts off Everest

CHINA/NEPAL: China has banned foreign climbers from the Tibetan side of Everest for the rest of the year after a Polish man made an illegal crossing into Nepal via the summit of the mountain last month.

The realisation of Janusz Adam Adamski’s lifelong ambition has had huge consequences for the rest of the climbing community, with an outcry from fellow mountaineers condemning his ‘‘selfishness’’.

Aside from Everest itself, Beijing has barred climbers from Tibet altogether until next year.

Adamski, 49, who has also been banned from climbing in Nepal for 10 years for climbing Everest without the £8500 (NZ$15,000) permit, remains unrepentant amid the condemnation.

’’I’ll never regret what I did. As there is no provision of issuing a traverse permit in both countries, I had to traverse illegally for fulfilment of my lifelong dream,’’ he said in Kathmandu after his arrest.

‘‘I am ready to face any legal challenge in Nepal to safeguard the greatest achievement of my life.’’

Climbing from Tibet, Adamski reached the summit on May 21, before descending into Nepal and the arms of the police.

He claimed he was in ill health at the summit and feared for his life if he descended the north face. His unrepentant bragging to the Nepali press has not gone down well on either side of the border, however.

After Kathmandu’s decision to ban Adamski, the China Tibet Mountaineering Association said all climbing permits for the region were revoked for the rest of the year. Other climbers, some of whose autumn expeditions to Tibet were already planned and costed, are outraged.

The veteran American climber Alan Arnette, who chronicles each Everest climbing season and has scaled the mountain several times, denounced Adamski, condemning his ‘‘total disregard for rules’’.

‘‘His actions have cost others their opportunity to climb in Tibet this autumn . . . He said that he believes there is no border on mountains and thus ignored the rules, apparently feeling they didn’t apply to him.’’ – The Times